Do kids just......stop napping one day?!

[Rosebud1302]

My son is 22 months next week. I have suspected he will drop his nap sooner rather than later because he has with the other naps. So Sunday he napped as normal. Monday. Refused. Today. Refused. Is this it. Is this the end of our nap journey? 😫😫🤣

I'm trying to work from home still and I'm just exhausted trying to entertain him and work. He is going back to nursery soon but now I just feel like an awful parent for basically ignoring him for chunks of the day while I desperately try and work. I have no motivation to set activities up for him because he either ignores it or plays for literally 30 seconds. So I just let him carry on alone. Obviously I do play with him but mum guilt is real.

Anyway my point of this point was - I assumed naps would kind of phase out rather than just suddenly stop?! Am I naive haha!

[Selfsettling3]

Some kids do and some don’t. Mine would have happily have napped and then not gone to sleep until 1 in the morning.

[Ricekrispie22]

You’re probably experiencing the 2 year sleep regression. I think it is too early for your little one to drop their naps altogether. It will just be a tricky patch of hit and miss naps, that will get better after a month or so. From my experience, most children are napping until at least their 3rd birthday. Sure, lots of 2 year olds prefer not to take a nap. As they’re expressing their growing desire for independence they’ll fight you on the whole idea of naptime. Who wants to lie down in the middle of the day when there are bubbles to blow and cat food to taste?!? But for a child under 3 it’s far more likely that, while they may not want to nap, they still need to nap. For me it’s about the cardinal rule of kids: you can’t make them eat, sleep, or poop. But you can make them go to a dark, comfortable, safe, dull place every day at the same time. What they do in there is their business. But it’s your business not to confuse their desire to not nap with not needing to nap.
With my DS, we found he wasn’t settling at bedtime anymore, and also woke a bit earlier than we would have liked. We gradually reduced the length of the nap. We also replaced the nap with a period of ‘quiet time’, so he was still resting even if he wasn’t sleeping.
We did have to introduce a slightly earlier bedtime until he adjusted and to avoid too much overtiredness by the end of the day.
There were also some days when he needed a nap, and others when he could go without.
Each child is different thoughts . What works for one won’t work for another exactly the same age.

[Bringmewineandcake]

Both of mine dropped their nap shortly after their 2nd birthdays. Unless we were in a car that was it, nap time was done with.

[CheshireCats]

All 3 of mine dropped their nap between 2 and 2 and a half.

[NameChange30]

I think it's pretty normal to drop the nap any time between 2 and 3. DS was about 2y9m when he dropped his. He refused and if we tried he wouldn't sleep. Sometimes we could get him to sleep in the car but not always.

[antipodes1]

One of mine just stopped napping it coincided with starting preschool at 3yrs her naps never affected her bedtime.
My other two would have continued to nap but I stopped the naps at around 2-2.5years as they just would NOT go to bed at night if they napped in the day. It was a horrible period as they needed a nap and were so cranky but if napped they would be up until 10-11pm and then cranky the next day. I used to have sweets and drinks in the car to keep them awake!

[Rosebud1302]

Thanks all. I do think it's a tiny bit early and this is what confused me because he was literally napping beautifully up until Sunday and is now refusing? Which is what is making me think it's perhaps more of a regression type thing. He does get cranky. He also goes incredibly hyper when he's overtired and that has been happening in spades the last few days. I think I'm going to keep his routine for now and see if this continues when he is back at nursery. So still do the whole nap routine and just leave him to it!! Who knows I might be lucky and get a few more months out of him haha

[Tentativesteps133]

My DD (2.5) has done the same thing a couple of times. I just tell myself to give it 2 weeks - keep persisting in tiring her out in the morning and putting her down for a nap and if she goes 2 weeks without a nap I'll consider the battle lost. She's never gone longer than 3 days and usually goes back to a solid 1 - 1.5hrs on the 3rd/4th day. When she says she doesn't want to nap I just tell her she doesn't have to sleep, she just has to lie in her bed whilst I have a nap in my bed and see what happens (she has teddies/books to entertain herself). I know she's not ready to drop it yet as on the days she doesn't nap she is beside herself by the end of the day even with an earlier bedtime.

[Rosebud1302]

Thanks @Tentativesteps133 that's really interesting to hear. I'm going to keep going for now as I don't think he's quite ready yet (nearly but not quite!) I like the idea of books in his bed I might try that.